The Hindu : Sri Lankan drug smugglers no longer count on local help?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 03, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

Sri Lankan drug smugglers no longer count on local help?

By K.T. Sangameswaran

CHENNAI MAY 2 . With enforcement authorities stepping up vigil, drug smugglers seem to have changed their strategy to hoodwink their pursuers. As huge stakes are involved in the illegal operations, details of which have to be kept a closely-guarded secret, smugglers of drugs to Sri Lanka may be changing the composition of the gang as a recent major haul by the Narcotics Control Bureau reveals.

When an NCB team seized 13.4 kg of brown sugar from a house near Thiruppuvanam in Sivaganga district on April 25, it was in for a rude surprise. The entire gang consisted only of Sri Lankan nationals, without "local contacts" who usually helped them. One of those arrested was a Sri Lankan refugee, who had been staying at Thathaneri, near Sellur in Madurai, for the past 32 years.

The gang had its own "boat service" to transport brown sugar from the Rameswaram coast to Talaimannar in Sri Lanka, instead of depending on local fishermen. Interrogation of the arrested revealed that the gang had smuggled out about 30 kg of the drug, prior to the present seizure, bureau sources told The Hindu.

Earlier the bureau received intelligence that Kutty of Colombo had handed over about 13 kg of heroin to Selvakumar, a refugee. The former was arrested in connection with the seizure of 6.430 kg of heroin from one Jeya, another islander, near Porur here on March 14. Following-up on the information given by the arrested person, the team rushed to Sivaganga district and seized brown sugar, which Selvakumar kept secretly in his relative's house. Fernando, another Sri Lankan, was also arrested.

This is the first instance of detection, in the last couple of years, where the islanders directly obtained the drug and tried to smuggle it to Sri Lanka without seeking the help of locals.

Going by past cases of seizure, they usually, carried out the activities in India, taking the assistance of local smugglers. At least, the help of local fishermen along the Indian coast was counted on for ferrying the drug to Sri Lanka. "However, in the present case, the Sri Lankans did not rely on local contacts at all", the sources said. Possibly to ensure the utmost secrecy and success of the operations. The gang went on its own to Ahmedabad, obtained the drug, boarded a train to Nellore (Andhra Pradesh) and then reached Madurai via Tirupati.

Meanwhile, another attempt to smuggle brown sugar from Thiruvanthapuram to the Maldives by air has come to light. On April 26, Jojo of Thiruvananthapuram was arrested, after he had swallowed 290 gm of the drug, kept in capsules, and tried to fly to the Maldives. This was perhaps the first attempt to smuggle the drug there from a South Indian airport in the last five years. The supplier, Abdul Wahid of Thiruvananthapuram, was also nabbed.

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Sri Lankan drug smugglers no longer count on local help?